Tag Archives: simplicity

It Takes Hard Work to Make It Look Easy

A Customer Experience That Will Be Appreciated

It Takes Hard Work to Make It Look Easy

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

My friend Norman Beck recently shared a quote that inspired him: We work hard to make it look easy. Isn’t that what the best people do? Whether it’s sports, entertainment, or business, some people are so good that what they do looks easy.

I Googled the quote to find out who to attribute it to and found numerous variations:

In sports, Ken Griffey Jr., a professional baseball player, said, “Just because I made it look easy doesn’t mean that it was, and you don’t work hard and become a Hall of Famer without working day in and day out.”

In entertainment, Ben Mitchell, a fictional character from the BBC television series EastEnders, said, “It takes a lot of effort to make something look effortless.”

And in business, Steve Jobs of Apple said, “It takes a lot of hard work to make something look simple.”

There is some very practical wisdom in these motivational and inspiring quotes that we can apply to the customer service and customer experience (CX) world.

Think of the best customer experiences you have had.

Perhaps it was a person who was helpful, knowledgeable, and friendly, which, by the way, are the three experiences customers say are most likely to get them to come back, according to our 2024 CX research (sponsored by RingCentral). They made your experience enjoyable and easy. What you probably don’t know is that other than a pleasant demeanor – hopefully a natural part of the employee’s personality – there was a lot of training to get this person educated about the company’s products so they could deliver a knowledgeable and helpful experience.

Or consider the simplicity of ordering a product from Amazon. How complicated is the behind-the-scenes process that takes you from a few clicks on their website to what you ordered showing up on your front porch? It is incredibly complicated, but the Amazon experience is so easy!

When I’m invited to speak to a group of business leaders as the keynote speaker, I often share my Six Simple Steps to Building a Customer-Focused Culture. Yes, the steps are simple, but that doesn’t mean they are easy. There’s a difference!

The point is that simple is usually not easy. There’s lots of work, thinking, planning, practice, experimenting, training, and more that goes into creating an easy experience. And one thing customers really want, whether they express it or not, is an easy experience. So, consider this simple – but not so easy-to-answer – question: What do you do to give your customers an easy experience?

Image Credits: Pixabay

Subscribe to Human-Centered Change & Innovation WeeklySign up here to join 17,000+ leaders getting Human-Centered Change & Innovation Weekly delivered to their inbox every week.

Simple Sells

How Simple Can You Make Your Business?

Simple Sells - How Simple Can You Make Your Business?

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

I love good barbeque. I live in St. Louis, which is famous for some of the best BBQs in the world! Really! We have a number of restaurants that have competed in worldwide competitions and come back with the first-place trophy.

My friend Norman Beck loves BBQ, too. Living in Texas, he’s also exposed to some of the best BBQ in the world, although I’ll argue it’s second to St. Louis. He teased me the other day by sending pictures of dinners featuring brisket, ribs, sausage and delicious side dishes from award-winning Hutchins BBQ in North Texas. He also included a description of its marketing plan.

According to Beck, the marketing plan is simple:

  1. Cook the best BBQ in Texas. My comment: Always do your best. Beck said the owner has one goal, “Be a little better today than you were yesterday.” That’s a great goal. Even if you don’t hit it, trying makes a big difference.
  2. Sell it at a fair price. My comment: A fair price doesn’t mean the lowest price. When you sell a good product, the price is less relevant.
  3. Be nice to everyone. My comment: This is customer service 101. It’s the basics. If you have the best BBQ but treat people with disrespect, you won’t be nearly as successful. And when you combine friendly service with a great product, price becomes even less relevant. People will pay more for the best of both worlds!
  4. Close when you sell out. My comment: I love the law of scarcity. When people know they have to “act now,” or they may miss out, they make more of an effort to do business with you.
  5. Repeat. My comment: If it works, just keep doing it!

The other thing you’ll notice about Hutchins (and most other BBQ restaurants), is they don’t spend a lot of money on ambiance. Many BBQ “joints” have wooden tables and chairs. The restaurants are set for function. In other words, no fancy light fixtures or expensive plates. They keep the place clean, and that’s about it.

The point of all of this is simplicity. You don’t go to a BBQ restaurant unless you want BBQ. The choices are limited, and so are the quantities. The BBQ chefs know how much to prepare every day, and when they run out, they close for the night. Customers know this and don’t expect anything more.

Simple Sells Cartoon by Shep Hyken

Most likely, your business has a few more “moving parts” than a BBQ restaurant. That doesn’t mean you can’t find ways to simplify the customer experience, your internal processes, and more. Go through an exercise in simplification by asking questions like these:

  1. Is any part of the process of our customer experience (or employee experience) redundant?
  2. Is there anything in our process that is unnecessary?
  3. Is every touchpoint our customers experience with us optimized for ease and efficiency?
  4. What could we do to make it easier to do business with us?

Asking questions like these and implementing the answers will help you simplify your business.

Image Credits: Shep Hyken, Unsplash

Subscribe to Human-Centered Change & Innovation WeeklySign up here to join 17,000+ leaders getting Human-Centered Change & Innovation Weekly delivered to their inbox every week.

Innovation Ripe for the Plucking

Innovation Ripe for the PluckingToo often we all run around trying to pluck a gamechanging idea out of thin air that nobody has ever seen, solving a problem that has never been solved, when really if the truth be told, there are still lots of existing problems with lots of solutions that are still waiting for a simple, elegant solution.

Is Quirky’s new ‘Pluck’ one of those simple, elegant solutions that you wish you had thought of? Are there other products that do this job better. Are you jealous of the margins they are likely to earn on such a simple product (assuming people are willing to pay the $12.99 asking price)?

Well, whatever you think, the Pluck is a great example of how innovation can come from the simple just as much as it can come from the complex, because innovation after all is about transforming the useful seeds of invention into solutions valued above every existing alternative – and then making the result widely adopted.

So, are you overcomplicating things in your search for innovation?

Moral of the story – Don’t be afraid to break a few eggs in your quest for innovation.


Build a common language of innovation on your team

Subscribe to Human-Centered Change & Innovation WeeklySign up here to get Human-Centered Change & Innovation Weekly delivered to your inbox every week.